Friday, March 17, 2017

Monopoly Is Changing Their Tokens Again

Looks like the makers of the board game, Monopoly, is trying to modernize the game once again by changing out more of their tokens. The boot, thimble and wheelbarrow are out, and the T-Rex, rubber ducky and penguin are in. Over 60 other potential new tokens were up for contention including an emoji and a hashtag.

I suppose I'm a bit miffed at losing the boot, which was my go-to token whenever I played Monopoly. I was always thrilled to boot other tokens as I passed them by on the board. What am I supposed to do now, pretend to eat them with the T-Rex? Really, though, the tokens are secondary to the gameplay. Back when the game was originally produced, it didn't come with tokens. Players provided their own, often using charms from bracelets or toys from Cracker Jack boxes. An honestly, making the player use whatever was handy is more in-line with the game's Depression Era roots. I can recall using bottle caps and pull-tabs to replace lost Monopoly tokens back when I was a kid. Perhaps a return to this "make do with what you've got" spirit of the game is just what is required in order to make Monopoly relevant again.

Games featuring the new tokens will be available starting in August. Anyone want to bet on when a version of the game called "Monopoly Classic", priced slightly higher than the "mainstream" version will come out?